The 2020 Goa Book Covers Campaign
Day 21: Book 21 #2020GBCC <https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/2020gbcc?__eep__=6&source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG> *Simply My Way – Bennet Paes* Paes’ first book covers a variety of topics, ranging from historical migrations and their aftermath on Goa and the Indian sub-continent, politics, music, business. It also reflects upon the roots of the Goan writer, who says it all like it is, from his own life experiences both in Goa and beyond, in a manner to be browsed over leisurely. Bennet Paes has also authored *Love ‘n Share It*, a fictional love story set in his beloved Sashti (roughly south) Goa, but within its many folds is the memory of a Goa lost or at any rate fading. What is interesting about Paes’s book is the observational precision with which he narrates village life. He provides minor asides to the main narrative by giving us descriptions of the caste system, the *ladhin* (sung litany), the Goan *botler* (butler on the high seas) and the ‘*kuhr*’ among other things. The *kuhr* or *kudd* is uniquely Goan, a sort of halfway house set up in Bombay, to assist new arrivals into the city, or transiting out of Bombay. Paes tells us how, often, the *kudds* themselves became gatekeepers of the caste system besides being gender-segregated, and he notes, that eventually women set up their own ‘*bailancho-kuhr*.’ Bennet Paes of Assolna, now retired has told it like it is and it seems he has lived a charmed life. What adventures! What journeys! What a way to travel abroad and come back to Assolna to roost! Truly there is nothing like a native of Assolna. His early life makes for a fascinating reading, especially how he researched his deeper roots from north India prior to transplanting them in the red soil of Assolna. The author’s long stay in Kuwait is like a dream that Aladdin on his magic mat would envy. Maria Fatima Pais New Delhi